https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3M8ZxDC9A16kO5z3Jvpqvd?si=snXCGjqKQvicK3sqVkxVuw&pi=jCTiUXitSceCk

1: Willoughby's Theme – This acts because the opening credit for the story. Within the context of the WT album, however particularly this playlist, I view this music because the spirit of Willoughby, guiding Ethel all through her story. It symbolizes his reminiscence of her and the way irrespective of the place she goes, she has all the time carried him along with her.

2: Household Tree (Intro) – This units the stage for the story of Ethel Cain. Performing as a prologue, Ethel Cain wakes up in a basement. Chilly, in ache, and alone, she examines the injuries on her physique and realizes that she is lifeless within the basement the place Isaiah Abrams murdered her. Her soul is trapped someplace between life and loss of life. Because the music builds and swells, reminiscences flash earlier than her eyes: her small Alabama city of Shady Grove, her troubled relationship with faith, her misplaced one real love, Willoughby Tucker, her deceased father and distant mom, her buddy Jainie, her relationship with Logan Phelps, and her eventual kidnapping and homicide by Isaiah. From this level on, we’re taking a journey along with her to completely perceive what led her right here.

3: Janie – We begin with Janie, Ethel's solely actual buddy rising up. With Janie in a brand new relationship, Ethel senses the upcoming separation and divide between them rising. Ethel, an unconventional woman, by no means might think about a life the place she and Janie are aside, and that scares her. Ethel feels herself rising much less of a precedence in Janie's life, with Ethel fearing she is being left behind. Janie is rising up and altering, whereas Ethel just isn’t. She doesn't wish to see Janie grow to be like the opposite girls in Shady Grove, a housewife with too many mouths to feed; she needs issues to remain as they’re, simply two women with nothing however their desires and one another. With nobody to connect herself to, she latches on to the one different particular person she feels she is aware of, Willoughby Tucker.

4: Mud Bowl – Ethel recounts her first time assembly Willoughby within the swimming pool throughout swim class. She is aware of he's a candy boy and felt it from the beginning. Ever since her father's abuse, that is the primary man she feels she will be able to belief, and she or he clings to that. Although mysterious and brooding, Willoughby is type to Ethel, and from that, their relationship and her idolization of him develop. They run round collectively, appearing as if there’s nothing on the earth that may cease them. They break into an deserted home exterior of city, and picture their very own home, removed from Shady Grove, someplace in Nebraska, with nothing however the world forward of them. To cement their love, Willoughby crops violets within the entrance of the home.

5: American Teenager – Disillusioned by her small city, the rising distance between her and Janie, and her rising love for the enigmatic Willoughby, Ethel is able to stay a life that she needs. Regardless of her mom Vera's needs, Ethel doesn't wish to quiet down and lift a household like Janie, or take up the pulpit as her father as soon as had; she needs to construct a life with Willoughby, one freed from judgment and of the expectations of the American teenager. Regardless of the poverty and dependancy that plagues this city, she determines that love can conquer something, and that it’s the solely factor stronger than the American dream.

6: Fuck Me Eyes – With Ethel and Willoughby nonetheless younger and in love, doubt begins to set in for Ethel when rumors start to swirl a couple of classmate, Holly Reddick. Holly is carefree with no ties to carry her again, one thing Ethel isn't in a position to do due to her household roots. She sees her hanging round Willoughby, which leads Ethel to consider that Willoughby is in love along with her. Ethel feeds into the rumors that Holly is the city slut, a prostitute, an affordable time, however in actuality, she is aware of that that is only a woman making an attempt to make it on this world, identical to Ethel is, and due to that, she pertains to her. That being so, her concern nonetheless stands, and Ethel seems like she is probably not sufficient for Willoughby.

7: Nettles – Just a few years go by, all three graduate from highschool, and Ethel's anxieties round her relationship with Willoughby develop. She imagines loss of life consuming him, him going off to conflict, him leaving her and by no means coming again, and this causes her to latch on much more. She continues to idolize him, not absolutely understanding that he has demons of his personal. This causes him to push her away, with Ethel not understanding cease it. And so the cycle continues, and Ethel retains hoping she will be able to save him and their relationship. With Willoughby's trauma slowly popping out of the woodwork, Ethel is uncertain look after him, however continues to hope that love is sufficient.

8: Head within the Wall – Willoughby's trauma has come to the floor absolutely now, and as he distances himself from her, Ethel's anxieties develop to the most important level they ever have. For the primary time, she is offended with him. However because of the method she has constructed him into one thing she wants and never who he’s, she will be able to't assist however sympathize with him on the similar time. She fears that they’ll grow to be like everybody else of their city and blames them and God for making them this manner. They argue within the Nebraska home, with Ethel making an attempt desperately to see what they may very well be, and with Willoughby making an attempt to clarify that, due to him and his demons, it isn't attainable. All of the whereas, a storm is constructing exterior.

9: Michelle Pfeiffer (feat. lil aaron) – Ethel and Willoughby attain a breaking level and are left with a call: keep or go. Whereas equally exhausting for each, Ethel nonetheless romanticizes their agony and tells Willoughby that house is wherever he’s, be it Nebraska or Shady Grove. Willoughby, nonetheless not being heard and never listened to by Ethel, tells her that they’ll't preserve occurring this manner and want to finish issues. Because the storm between them rages on inside, the one exterior grows much more harmful.

10: Tempest – Willoughby and Ethel resolve to remain and take shelter of their Nebraska home whereas the storm reaches its peak. There, Willoughby bares his emotions. He mocks Ethel for what he sees as her sufferer complicated, the best way she by no means actually knew him, and for what he feels are surface-level makes an attempt to assist him and acknowledge the ache he’s going by way of. Ethel, overcome by feelings and the earth-shattering reality that even their love couldn’t face up to the horrors of their small city, abandons Willoughby within the storm, cementing to him what he all the time knew: nobody can save him from destruction, be it by nature or himself.

11: Amber Waves – It's morning, the storm has handed, and half of the city is in ruins. Residents come out of their properties to evaluate the injury and search for these misplaced within the wreckage. By toppled over energy traces and rubble, Ethel is searching for one particular person and one particular person solely: Willoughby Tucker. Millicent Dressure's physique is recovered first, adopted by Mr. Arnold Leighton. Ethel runs to the Nebraska home and finds it empty. She searches neighborhoods, fields, and his dwelling, all in useless. Lastly, one ultimate physique is recovered, too mangled to be recognized. With no proof that it's Willoughby or not, Ethel assumes the worst and runs again to the one particular person she will be able to go to, Janie. However Ethel is simply too late. Whereas Ethel feared Janie would push her away and reacted by latching onto Willoughby, she inadvertently pushed Janie away. Janie, making an attempt to scrub up the wreckage, barely acknowledges Ethel. It has been years since they graduated, and longer since they’ve talked. Janie offers Ethel one ultimate wave and leaves and not using a phrase. Ethel is now really alone.

12: Willoughby's Interlude – Performing as the primary interlude to the story, this music represents the absence of Willoughby bodily, however not emotionally. Ethel nonetheless carries him along with her, however she is misplaced and disconnected in doing so, which finally results in her downfall. Versus Willoughby's Theme, this interlude feels haunted. Willoughby's love continues to be there, however is now out of attain.

13: Casings – Months go by, and Ethel Cain, heartbroken and alone, begins consuming. With the city questioning the place Willoughby went, her unhappiness solely grows. She hears that he ran away with one other woman, that he joined the military, that he constructed a life with out her. She begins to query herself and everything of their relationship, concluding that she was simply not sufficient.

14: Misuse Oh – Ethel, now drunk, wanders Shady Grove at evening. She can not cease lacking Willoughby, nor can she cease blaming herself for his or her demise. As she wanders the streets, drunk and alone, she finds herself standing in entrance of the Nebraska home.

15: A Home In Nebraska – As soon as inside, she remembers her favourite moments with Willoughby. She laments over her misplaced love and the way they’ll by no means get to have their very own home in Nebraska, the household she had all the time needed, and the liberty to like and stay as they happy. She remembers the primary day they met, appears to be like by way of previous footage, and feels as if this ache won’t ever go away. She realizes that it was her fault for pushing Willoughby away, her fault for making him go away city, and that he won’t ever come again due to her.

16: Crush – Many months have handed, and because the neighborhood rebuilds and returns to normalcy, Ethel stays stagnant and misplaced. However sooner or later, whereas strolling dwelling from church, she sees a well-known face sitting on a bike throughout the road: Logan Phelps. Having been kicked out of college for violent conduct and hiding weapons in his locker, Ethel can't assist however go and discuss to him. He left city someday after, and so Logan doesn't know Ethel carefully, nor does he view her the best way she views herself. In Ethel's eyes, this can be a probability for her to start out over. They discuss days passed by, the storm, and the way issues have been for each of them. He presents her a trip dwelling, and so they start to slowly join into one thing extra. One evening, after an evening out crammed with enjoyable and keenness, Logan and Ethel cease by the city's nook retailer. Logan runs in and robs the place. Simply earlier than the cops arrive, Ethel is left with a alternative: run away with him, or keep behind and return to the life she has been making an attempt to flee. She makes her determination and will get on the again of his motorbike. Collectively, they go away Shady Grove, by no means to return.

17: Canine Days – On the highway, they cease at a distant city in want of cash and a spot to sleep. Logan begins to work within the fields, and Ethel spends her days consuming in lodge rooms, ready for him to return dwelling. It's hear that their relationship takes a flip. Logan begins to point out a unique facet, a facet that Ethel has by no means seen earlier than. Their relationship grows poisonous and one thing primarily based purely on intercourse, and whereas Ethel is aware of it isn't good, she is simply too devoted to depart.

18: Western Nights – At this level of their relationship, Logan is lower than type, at occasions violent, however Ethel nonetheless finds herself hopelessly dedicated to him regardless of his faults. With cash being exhausting to return by, Logan returns to robbing shops at gunpoint and breaking into ATMS. They journey, city to city, robbing the place they’ll and dwelling in lodge rooms. Understanding that they’ll solely conceal for therefore lengthy, Logan decides to make one ultimate theft, the city's financial institution. After stealing all the cash they’ll, more cash than both of them has ever seen, they’ll run off and at last be free.

19: Well-known Final Phrases (An Ode to Eaters) – The day of the theft, all the things goes virtually in response to plan. They enter the financial institution, Logan's gun is drawn, and so they start taking cash from the protected. However, unbeknownst to Ethel and Logan, the emergency button has been tripped, and the cops swarm in round them. A shootout begins simply as Ethel and Logan attain their bike. Bullets are flying from both facet as Logan speeds away. Ethel, hanging on with one arm round Logan, takes his gun and fires again on the police, killing an officer. Taking facet roads and again alleys, they lastly make it again to their lodge. As Ethel frantically packs, she doesn't discover the blood dripping from Logan's physique. He goes to the lavatory and collapses. Ethel, operating in, finds him on the ground, blood pooling round him. She pulls him into the tub and makes an attempt to save lots of him, however it’s too late. Logan dies in her arms, and with the sound of sirens within the distance, there is just one factor left for Ethel to do. She grabs as a lot cash as she will be able to, takes Logan's gun, crawls out the lavatory window, and runs by way of the sphere. Alone once more, Ethel is now a needed fugitive. (The cannibalistic imagery is to not be taken actually, however fairly exhibits her degree of devotion to Logan and foreshadowing her personal destiny.)

20: Household Tree – Ethel escapes and finds herself on the run, with solely the violent classes of her upbringing to information her. Right here, she remembers her previous and makes use of that as gas to maintain operating.

21: Golden Age – As Ethel wanders the world alone, she desires of the life she needed with the person whom she misses probably the most, Willoughby. She imagines herself of their room at evening, however slowly shifts her ideas to how love has by no means been type to her, and that she is bored with losing away, ready for it to return alongside. She remembers begging Logan, Willoughby, and her father to like her proper, however being too scared to do something about it herself. In the end, by way of the ups and downs, she decides that love will come alongside once more, and that she'll take it for what it’s, even when it kills her.

22: Arduous Instances – Ethel, alone and nonetheless operating, finds herself reflecting on her life, her failed relationships, and what introduced her right here to this second. As she traces her reminiscences, she is introduced again to the primary time her father sexually abused her when she was simply 9 years previous. Emotions swell as she involves phrases with the sophisticated emotions she has for him all these years later, and that, even in loss of life, she continues to be tied to him in additional methods than one, and that even along with her previous life behind her and him being lifeless, she will be able to by no means really escape what he did to her.

23: Antlers – Ethel nonetheless can't get the reminiscences of her father out of her head, and because the ache builds within her, she will be able to't assist however blame him for all the things she has completed, for all the things that has occurred, and for all the things else that can occur.

24: Thoroughfare – Ethel, having nothing however Logan's gun in her pocket, has discovered her strategy to Texas. Sleeping in motels is now not an possibility because of the cash operating out, and she or he is drained and hungry. Whereas strolling alongside the Texas highway, Ethel meets Isaiah Abram. Isaiah asks her to affix him on his journey to California in pursuit of his childhood dream to see all of America. Ethel, at first apprehensive, accepts his supply, feeling it her solely possibility. The music follows the pair as they make their method west and start to develop nearer. Ethel feels protected with Isaiah, and that that is the primary time a person has handled her proper. Upon their arrival in California, Isaiah confesses his like to Ethel, and so they resolve to make a life for themselves in California.

25: Sunday Morning – As said by Hayden, Ethel Cain is an unreliable narrator. Fairly than going willingly, it’s assumed that Ethel was kidnapped by Isaiah in Texas after locals reported seeing her get dragged into his truck. Sunday morning exhibits the Stockholm Syndrome Ethel is experiencing right here, and that she feels she couldn't go away even when she needed to. With out realizing it, Ethel has met her demise.

26: Radio Towers – Performing as the ultimate interlude to the story, Ethel watches the facility traces out the window of Isaiah's truck. She imagines the beat of her coronary heart sinking with the rise and fall of the strain from one pole to the subsequent. She thinks of her hometown and the downed wires after the storm, which then leads her to pondering of Willoughby, hoping that he’s nonetheless on the market, and perhaps, simply perhaps, is searching for her.

27: Unpunishable – Now in California, Ethel begins to work as a stripper as a way to help her and Isaiah. Fairly than getting a job of his personal, Isaiah spends his nights on the membership, taking Ethel's cash and spending it on medicine and drink. These vices make him a extra violent man, extra violent than Ethel has ever seen. Forcing her to offer group dances and carry out at intercourse events, she has no alternative however to let Isaiah and the lads he finds do no matter they wish to her. She accepts this destiny and begins to make use of medicine fed to her by Isaiah. Whereas she shoots as much as cope, he retains offering them as a way to manage Ethel. Whereas excessive, these males use and abuse her, and with Ethel too excessive to say no, she falls additional into dependancy.

28: Gibson Woman – Ethel, now having misplaced her personal autonomy, has fallen deep into intercourse work and Isaiah's management. Night time after evening, she is pimped out by Isaiah, who’s getting extra violent each day. With the quantity of medication they devour, Ethel begins to lose her sense of actuality. Night time after evening, sleeping with a number of males with totally different violent natures, Isaiah has full management of her now.

29: Inbred – Right here, we get a unique perspective of the intercourse work Ethel is doing. So strung out on medicine, Ethel is unable to battle off these males or say no to their demons. As a strategy to cope, Ethel fantasizes a world the place Isaiah continues to be her protector, very similar to she did in Thoroughfare, and imagines that after the lads get too violent, Isaiah will are available in and save her. This, after all, just isn’t true, and Isaiah stays within the subsequent room, handed out, with a needle nonetheless in his arm. As more cash will get spent on medicine, the residence they’re renting falls into shambles. The ability is shut off, filth and dirt coat the ground, and Ethel finds herself really misplaced. One evening, whereas one man is being significantly violent in the direction of Ethel, Isaiah wakes up from his drug-fueled coma. He bursts in and kicks the person out. Whereas pondering that she is lastly free, she quickly realizes that the nightmare is simply starting. Loading her up with medicine and with an animalistic look in his eye, Isaiah drags Ethel from the residence and takes her to his truck. He drives for a while, making it to an deserted home within the woods of California. He drags Ethel inside, and the nightmare continues.

30: Ptolemaea – Below the affect of the medicine pressured upon her by Isaiah, Ethel loses all sense of self and begins to hallucinate. Isaiah turns into the bodily manifestation of Demise, and Ethel is trapped. Isaiah, too far gone, begins to torture Ethel, taunting her. Throwing faith again into her face, he makes it clear that he’s her God and that she can not escape him, irrespective of how exhausting she tries. A starvation for destruction has constructed up inside Isaiah, and he now unleashes it. Screaming for him to cease, Ethel runs, and in her drug-fueled state, manages to seek out the door. Barefoot and half-naked, she runs frantically by way of the woods into the evening, with Isaiah looking her like an animal. Operating out of stamina and misplaced within the darkness, Isaiah closes in. And whereas visions of her household's violent previous and non secular trauma flash earlier than her, Isaiah corners her and shoots Ethel with the gun given to her by Logan. She falls to the bottom, and whereas Isaiah stands over her, she passes out.

31: Punish – Ethel wakes as much as the sound of filth being moved and branches breaking. Not absolutely lucid, she feels herself being dragged by her hair again to the deserted California home. Whereas being dragged again, she begins to cry and asks herself why this occurred to her. All she ever needed on this world was love, and but she has regularly discovered herself to be punished by it. She views love as one thing violent, one thing by no means made for her. She equates this to her non secular upbringing, making herself to an angel forged out from Heaven for less than eager to stay a life crammed with love and kindness.

32: August Underground – Again within the deserted California home, Ethel stops combating. Too weak from the gunshot wound and the medicine in her system, she succumbs to her destiny. Isaiah, in a drug-fueled rage, begins to understand the place he has put himself in and uffers a psychotic episode. As Ethel lay dying, he takes her arm and begins to eat.

33: Televangelism – Ethel's soul leaves her physique and ascends into the afterlife.

34: Solar Bleached Flies – Now within the afterlife, Ethel begins to make peace and replicate on her life, her complicated relationship along with her father and faith, and the person whom she misses to at the present time, even in loss of life, Willoughby Tucker. She talks to a model of God she has by no means seen earlier than and begs for a second probability. She yearns to be in church once more, to have her previous life again, however God tells her this isn’t attainable and that her time has ended. She asks God why he didn't save her, however he doesn’t reply. He solely responds with "If it's meant to be, then will probably be." Discovering this oddly comforting, Ethel realizes that her destiny was sealed lengthy earlier than her conception, and that she couldn’t change the result of her life, no matter what she did in a different way, as a result of she merely didn't know any higher. She then asks God if she'll ever see her household, mates, or Willoughby once more. God doesn’t reply and as an alternative takes her by the hand and leads her to a door. She appears to be like at God, then the door, reaches out her fingers, and walks by way of it.

35: Strangers – Ethel finds herself again within the deserted California home's basement. Taking a look at Isaiah, having absolutely misplaced his thoughts, she watches him as he lowers her physique into the basement along with her and proceed to eat. She stays there for a while, watching him develop sick and raveled, serious about how all she needed was for him to like her, and for her to be sufficient. Days go by as she watches her corpse slowly start to rot away till, sooner or later, the cops break in and arrest Isaiah. They take photographs of Ethel's physique and start to take her away from the hell she has been in. Whereas taking her physique, she remembers her mates, Willoughby, and her mom. Not with the ability to bear the considered her mom seeing her like this, Ethel's spirit will get up and walks out the door. Every door results in one other, retracing her steps that received her right here. She walks by way of her and Isaiah's residence, the strip membership, and the numerous lodge rooms they stayed in. By the lodge the place Logan died, the financial institution and the numerous nook shops. She opens one ultimate door and finds herself simply exterior Shady Grove. She walks previous the varsity, gasoline stations, and a retailer the place she sees her face plastered on a milk carton, declaring her lacking. She walks previous Janie's dwelling and appears contained in the window. She sees her previous buddy, crying on the sofa, watching the information of Ethel's physique being found. She sees her now husband holding her shut, comforting her. In Janie's lap, she sees a child woman, with Janie's arms holding her tight, kissing her on the brow. Ethel realizes that Janie received what Ethel all the time yearned for, and now, in loss of life, is pleased for her previous buddy. She waves goodbye, hoping that someway they know she is in a greater place. She continues strolling, previous the graveyard and the church, and at last makes it to her entrance door. She opens it and sees her mother, Vera, sitting on the desk with the information on within the background. Her face is pink and her eyes swollen from crying. She is aware of the destiny that befell her daughter. Ethel walks near her and tells her to not fear. Ethel bends down, kisses her cheek, and whispers, "I'll see you once more." Vera appears to be like up, clutching Ethel's highschool photograph near her coronary heart. Vera will get up, shuts off the TV, and goes to her room. As Ethel watches her go away, feeling higher having seen her mother one final time, she turns to the entrance door. She has another cease to make. She opens the door and steps contained in the Nebraska home.

36: Waco, Texas – The home continues to be deserted, having not modified a lot within the years since she and Willoughby first stepped foot inside its partitions. She wanders round for some time, taking all of it in. As she rounds the nook from the entrance hallway, she notices a lightweight glowing in the lounge together with low static. She goes in and sees a TV trying to find a sign. Earlier than it, a sofa, and on it God. She goes and sits with him and asks him, "Is that this it then?" He smiles at her and says, "Nearly." He fingers her a clean VHS tape and will get as much as go away. On the ground, she sees a VHS participant plugged into the TV. Earlier than she places it in, she hears God say, "Only one extra cease, you then'll be dwelling." She slides the tape in and presses play. The TV static snaps to a black display. Moments of silence go by earlier than a face seems. She sees Willoughby smiling. Overcome, Ethel begins to sob, however she doesn’t flip away. She watches by way of tear-filled eyes as scenes from her and Willoughby's life play earlier than her eyes. She sees them assembly for the primary time in swim class. She sees them speaking within the hallways, consuming beneath the bleachers with Janie. She sees them driving round in her father's previous, beat-up truck. She watches him kiss her for the primary time on the drive-in, and him planting flowers within the entrance of their Nebraska home. She sees them in fields sitting with each other, holding one another shut. However she additionally sees the rising distance, the fights, and Willoughby's demons taking maintain. She sees him now for what he really was: a tragic, lonely boy, who was hurting only a a lot as she was. She sobs as she sees herself leaving him the evening of the twister, watching him conceal within the nook, sobbing, his physique shaking. She watches him rise up and run out the entrance door, and his physique lifting into the air. She needs to show off the tape, simply as badly as she needs she had stayed with him that evening, however she will be able to't. She watches as his physique is discovered, too mangled to be acknowledged. She watches herself, denying that it's him. The tape clicks off and ejects. The static returns, and Ethel screams. Wrapping her arms round herself, she curls up and sobs exhausting into the cushions. She begs God to take it again, to let her begin once more. She begs to see Willoughby and inform him that she's sorry and by no means meant to harm him. She is supposed with silence. She will get up from the sofa and places the tape again in. She begins to rewind it and watch all the things play again in reverse. The pictures flash earlier than her tear-soaked eyes till she will get to the start and pauses it on Willoughby's smiling face. She tells the picture that she wished she might change issues, that love might have been sufficient, however now realizes she wanted extra from him. By sobs, she chokes out, "I'd attain into your physique, and repair you if I might." She remembers the household she had needed to construct with him, the names they'd give their infants. Vera Jr. for a woman, in honor of Ethel's mom, and Gabriel for a boy, for the angel of hope. Nonetheless trying on the picture of her love, she leans in shut and kisses it gently. As she does so, she whispers, "Willoughby Tucker, I'll all the time love you." Because the phrases escape her lips, the TV clicks off. Engulfed in silence, Ethel appears to be like across the room. At first she isn't certain, however realizes that the room is altering. The flooring grow to be clear and glossy, and the wallpaper repairs itself. Drapes sprout from the tops of the home windows and open, letting the solar illuminate the room. She runs all through the home, as every room repairs itself. She appears to be like on the partitions and sees photographs in frames of her and Willoughby holding their youngsters, of Willoughby fishing, of Ethel dancing in the lounge. She sees her and Willoughby in highschool on the day they first met. Overcome, unable to talk, she hears the entrance door open. Earlier than she will be able to react, a tough voice calls to her. "I'm dwelling, child." She runs to the lounge and into the entrance hallway, and sees Willoughby Tucker standing within the doorway, smiling, holding Vera Jr. and Gabriel in his arms.